Half and Half

Chapter 2:

Ears, Tails and Claws

‘Why did you growl at her?’

‘She was screaming, I was just saving her voice.’

‘By scaring her like you just did?’

‘Well... What would you have done Izzie?’

‘Calmed her down!’

‘Humph,’

Was the only reply. It was the fox girl. What did they mean she doesn’t know? Who where they talking about? Lily half opened her eyes and looked towards the voices to see the Meeks staring right into her face. Thank goodness someone normal.

‘Guys stop it! I think I think she waking up.’ Meeks looked up for a second at the two girls and they fell silent right away. She opened her eyes properly and looked towards the voices.

The scene that was in front of her could have made her faint all over again. The fox girl was face to face with another girl. This girl had white hair, whiter than snow and wore a simple snowy top that hung lightly down to her waist. On her cheek that was facing her she had three nasty looking scars. Her eyes where a deep lilac and for a minute Lily thought that the where contacts, but they weren’t, they where as real as what was flat against her head. Small round polar bear ears... No it was impossible, but yet they where there. As clear as the sunlight shining through the giant glass windows.

‘Ignore Beth she’s been here so long, seen so many come in.. She just tires of it.’ Meeks explained.

Lily took a deep breath and nodded not looking away from Izzie, as she sat up and swung her feet out of the bed for the second time.

‘M-Meeks, w-what’s going on?’ She dragged her gaze from Izzie with great difficulty. Her words caught in her thought as her eyes caught Meeks and something she never noticed before. How could she not hav-? WAIT! The hat of cause. How could she have been so stupid? This was a school for people like them, and now she was here too.

‘The same thing I went through months ago. The same thing that we’ve all been through.’

The door opened suddenly and another girl stormed in. She wore a short green dress with frilly straps around her arms. Her hair that waved down to her hips was a beautiful chestnut brown and her eyes where the colour of mustard. Two cat like ear poked from her head a flowing tail drifted behind her. She had an awful scowl on her face, causing lily to look to the ground. She then realised she had no shoes on, in fact no-one had shoes on. The girl with the mustard eyes only spoke when she was in the centre of the room, on the circle in the rug.

‘What in the name of cat whiskers is the commotion about, I’m trying to study!’ She half growled. Her voice shocked lily, as she was expecting her to sound sweet like honey but, instead she had a harsh voice full of sarcasm.

Meeks rolled her eyes before speaking to Lily ’Meet Kailey. We just had a little trouble with introducing Beth and Lily, ok. Wait a second. You never study!’

A smile worked its way across Kailey’s face and she looked to Beth, who rolled her eyes,

‘Come on Kay lets go,’ She said walking out the door her tail flicking from side to side with boredom. Kailey looked at the three girls left in there then walked out after her. Lily hoped she hadn’t made an enemy of them. She so desperately wanted to be nice and make friends.

‘Lily, we’re not the only ones with ears, tails and claws? You have then too.’ Meek said turning away going in her draw taking out the same mirror that Lily had taken out earlier that day. The shells around the frame seemed to glow in the light and the frame reflected the light onto her face. Lily hesitantly took it from her and looked at herself.

But the person in the mirror barely resembled herself. Instead a pale girl with bright green eyes stared back. The same curly red ringlet hung to her hips and her lips where a deep red. Two russet wolf ears poked proudly from her head. They were so pretty-

‘No!’ This couldn’t happen. In a minute she would wake up in the orphanage in her scrubby, itchy bed. She wasn’t like them, she couldn’t be. This was either a dream or nightmare and she wasn’t sure which yet.

‘Calm down, let me explain Lily, please.’ She put her hand forward to put it on her shoulder. Lily shrugged it off, and stared hard at Meeks.

‘Explain.’

‘Ok, from the beginning,’ Lily nodded and she continued. ‘Beth was the first, Ever here, you see her uncle. The headmaster let her go to the woods near his house with some friends and well a fox got in her tent. The other girls where left dead and she was mould to the brink of death. Her uncle came out when he heard the screaming, he killed the fox. He was a scientist and had been working on the change for almost 6 years, so his only choice was to change her. It worked obviously, so he tried it on the others, it worked. See Izzie was next to be changed. Before she came here she lived in the North Pole, her farther studied polar bears and she’d been there a long time. Almost all her life. A polar bear killed her farther and the other scientists, somehow she managed to get away. Look that’s her scar for escaping. Well as soon as it was two then he opened this school and taught the everything he could think of. Cooking, Reading, Writing, Climbing, Science, Maths, Wood shop, Metal work, Ridding, Fighting and there’s lots more too. I love it here and you will too, you just got to trust me.’

Lily closed her eyes and sighed,

‘So are you telling me I’m stuck like this for the rest of my life?’

‘Yes, we all are, but you missed the best part. We’re stronger than human, faster, leaner, we climb better. We practice all the time to stay good.’

‘How many others? I want to meet them?’

‘You can’t it’s a school. Izzie only got out because; we needed her to carry you. She’s the strongest.’

Izzie stepped forward, she hadn’t noticed the polar girl move until then, she’d looked almost frozen.

‘Rosie’s out, she went to get Lily.’